Lloyds and Barclays warn over ‘yes’ risks

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It is another major setback for Alex Salmond’s push for Scottish independenceDavid Cheskin/PA:Press Association

Hamish Macdonell

Last updated at 12:03AM, March 6 2014

Alex Salmond’s push for Scottish independence suffered another major setback
yesterday when the Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays became the latest UK
finance giants to warn of the dangers of breaking up the UK.

Delivering yet another major financial services blow to the SNP’s independence
plans, Lloyds forecast that taxes could rise, costs of regulation could
increase and customers could be faced with higher bills if Scotland became
independent.

It also emerged last night that Lloyds — and the other largely state-owned
bank RBS — could be forced to move the main operational bases out of
Scotland after independence.